The blossoming acre

BLOMKEST — Whether it’s a bite of a refreshing Honeycrisp apple or the tried-and-true Haralson baking apple, the Williams Orchard’s storefront on County Road 5 keeps apple enthusiasts satisfied from September through the end of December. Owner Tim Williams operates the orchard with the help of his family and a good old-fashioned honor system.

“I put in the apple trees as a hobby,” Williams said. “I put in a lot of hours, but it is a lot of fun meeting people and providing a product that people want and get excited about.”

In addition to Honeycrisp and Haralson, four other varieties are offered: Fireside, Honeygold, Sweet 16 and Red Baron. The apples are kept in a temperature- and moisture-controlled cooler from the time they’re picked and sorted until the time customers pick them up at the orchard.

A retired technology guy, Williams transitioned the property to suit his needs in the early 1990s by restoring, relocating and converting the 1926 barn and century farm into a facility to operate the orchard.

Williams and his wife, Melody, raised their four children on the farm. Their daughter, Kelci, and her twin daughters, Sailor and Wynter, have returned home to work alongside Williams for the 2026 apple harvest season.

With an acre orchard and 150 trees, apple picking starts in September when the earliest variety, Red Baron, ripens. Next to come are the Sweet 16 and Honeycrisp varieties, followed by the Honeygolds and Haralsons.
Fireside apples are the last variety to ripen.

“Because I have as many trees as I do, we pick everything once that variety is ready,” Williams said. “No. 1 apples are bagged and ready for customers to pick up. No. 2 apples, usually those on the smaller side or with blemishes, get sliced, dried and bagged for sale. The dried Honeycrisps are a family favorite.”

Windfallen apples and rejected apples are fed to the four steers in the pasture.

“They (the cattle) see me in the orchard, and they come along the fence, mooing for their apples,” Williams said. “We usually butcher one steer for winter, and we like to joke and tell people that we have apple-infused steaks because they get a lot of apples in the fall.”

Williams started the orchard with four rows of apples and harvested them using a tractor bucket, crates and picking bags. He has since upgraded to an open hayrack pulled by a John Deere Gator. He also added another two rows of Honeycrisp trees and 25 Kudos apple trees.

“The Kudos apple is like a sister to the Sweet Tango apple,” Williams said. “They won’t be available for a couple years, but we let four apples ripen this year to sample them, and they’re going to be good.”

Williams prunes the trees every spring so they put on healthy branches and blossoms and, more importantly, he can pick them while standing on the hay rack. Williams believes that proper pruning to allow for airflow among the trees helps mitigate both pests and disease. This technique is a key strategy for producing an abundance of apples each year, he said.

Williams is often asked about biennial bearing trees.

“From my experience, letting the tree bear too many apples one year results in biennial bearing trees,” Williams said. “The tree (seems to say), ‘I gave you all my effort last year, so I am taking a year off.’ If you prune the tree of its excess branches and abundance of young apples, you get steadier, better, bigger apples.”

While Williams doesn’t follow commercial spraying patterns, his operation isn’t an organic orchard, either. Williams attempted to convert to an organic orchard around 2015 but faced challenges that only amplified over its 4-year trial.

“The mindset for organic apples is that, if you want to do that, you need to plant varieties that are resistant to the diseases you have problems with,” Williams said. “If you look at their characteristics, there are certain apple varieties that are either very, medium, or not resistant to known pests and disease, so I would encourage people to do their research. For my tree varieties, the transition was not working, so I adapted.”

Williams said he has seen his share of challenges over the years. Hail has wreaked havoc for some years and pests for other years. He is proactive each spring when monitoring the trees. He uses traps for codling moths and mineral oil or paraffinic oil, also known as crop oil, specifically engineered to not harm the trees, as his methods of defense. In 2018, oyster scale, a sap-sucking pest, appeared in the orchard.
Since using the crop oil to smother and eradicate the pest, Williams said he has seen a comeback on the affected variety.

Signs along the county road as well as downtown help point people in the direction of the orchard. Williams said many people have found him through word of mouth and his Facebook page. Some call to find out if they can come to the orchard to pick their own apples, and Williams is happy to show them where to pick, or they can purchase the pre-picked apples.

Over the years, Williams has partnered with different programs providing lunch to farmers during fieldwork, pressing cider for local celebrations, hosting school groups and working with ag programs. Most recently, he has partnered with Mr. B’s Chocolates in Willmar. They use Williams Orchard’s apples to make their seasonal caramel apples.

“I view the orchard as God’s provision and a provision that I can provide for other people,” Williams said. “When I am out there picking, I am so delighted to pick the best-looking apple, and then there is another one directly behind it, sometimes three deep; … working in the orchard brings me a lot of joy.”

Williams returned to his home state in the early 1980s after four years in Idaho, where he had met his wife. He came back to help his father and brother run the family farm while also working as a technology consultant. Around the same time, he started a u-pick strawberry farm as a hobby. After about six years, he decided that growing strawberries was unpredictable and had found apples to be a safer bet. Still helping his family farm, he embarked on a new journey rather than one tied to dairy.

To this day, Williams enjoys the seasonal work in the orchard as well as his time off in the winter months. A restoration project, a 1950 1-ton International pickup truck, traveled with Williams from Idaho to the farm and finds its way back into the shop following apple season. Last winter, Williams focused on engine work, and this winter, he plans to work on the brakes and electrical components.

“For now, the truck sits and welcomes people to the orchard, but by next spring, I hope it’ll be going down the road,” Williams said.